Overview
Silktide now checks links inside your PDFs in the same way it checks links on your webpages. This was one of our most requested features, and it has now been rolled out to all customers.
You may notice more broken link results than before, as we are now able to uncover issues in your PDFs that were previously invisible.
Why this matters
Links inside PDFs are often just as important as links on webpages. They connect users to additional resources, provide references, and guide readers to take action. Until now, broken links in PDFs were not included in Silktide testing.
With this release, you’ll get a more complete picture of your content quality and accessibility.
How PDF link testing works
Some PDFs are tagged, which means they explicitly mark elements such as links. Silktide can interpret these reliably. However, most PDFs are not tagged. In those cases, Silktide (just like PDF viewers themselves) has to interpret the text and make an informed guess about what is a link.
This can lead to differences. For example:
Text such as
https://www.example.commay be detected and treated as a link. Whether it works when clicked depends on the PDF viewer, as each one guesses slightly differently. A link might work in Chrome, behave differently in Acrobat, or not work at all.Links that span multiple lines are generally handled correctly. But if there are layout changes — such as shifts in font, spacing, or column position — the link may be read differently depending on the viewer.
Because PDFs are primarily presentation data, not structured text, this interpretation will never be perfect. Silktide has been tested against thousands of cases and is highly accurate, but occasional results may reflect the quirks of how PDFs behave rather than a definite error.
If you want more detail about why these differences happen and how to manage them, see our guide: Why are broken links reported in PDFs?.
Summary
PDF broken link testing is now live in Silktide. This gives you deeper coverage across your digital content and helps you catch issues that were previously missed. The system is highly accurate, but because PDFs are interpreted differently by different viewers, some results may vary.